Near-primitive roots (Q1948717): Difference between revisions

Let \(t \geq 1\) be an integer and \(p \equiv 1 \bmod 4\) a prime number. A rational number \(g\) is called a near primitive root modulo \(p\) of index \(t\) if numerator and denominator of \(g\) are not divisible by \(p\), and if the order of \(g \bmod p\) is equal to \(\frac{p-1}t\). Fix \(g\) and \(t\) and let \(N_{g,t}(x)\) denote the number of primes \(p \leq x\) for which \(g\) is a near-primitive root with index \(t\). Artin's original conjecture on primitive roots predicts that \(N_{g,1}(x) \sim c_g A \pi(x)\), where \(\pi(x)\) counts the number of all primes \(p \leq x\) and where \(c_g\) is an explicitly given rational number and \(A\) is Artin's constant \(A = \prod_p (1 - \frac1{p(p-1)})\). Hooley has shown that Artin's conjecture is true if we assume the validity of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis. In this article, the author derives similar results on \(N_{g,t}(x)\) for arbitrary values of \(t \geq 1\).